Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

G'day lads

Been looking to distill some creations for a while and almost got a $500 t500 starters pack, before finding this forum.

Had a chat with Andrew from FSD, such a nice guy and looks like I need/want the 4" pot still (amazing) but funding approval doesn't allow.

I've sourced a cheap entry level product in stainless steel (probably Chinese made) pack to get me started but can see I'll be saving to upgrade to the 4" from FSD in a year's time.

This website is great and thought I'd say a big thank you to the community in helping me find my first steps.

Cheers

Hey punjabiz. Welcome to the forum. Plenty of learning and reading here and a bunch of helpful people.

Welcome punjabiz
You will love the 4 inch when you eventually get it. You will learn so much with the gear you have got, no matter what you have there is so much to learn.

Welcome Punjabiz!

Welcome Punjabiz, you will love it here. I am in same boat as you, can't get SWMBO to approve funds for 4", so going with 2" pot still design. Rather than going something Chinese, build one yourself, its well worth the effort. Pair it with a starter boiler, till you pass the learning curve.

If you want to distill traditional Punjabi rum (or desi daaru), then 2" is perfect for it. And if you get SS, make sure to add fair bit of copper mesh, it will improve the taste immensely :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks for the warm welcome BigRig, Wellsy and tacman1970.

Rocky4700, omg you're a mind reader, clearly my username checks out! Thanks heaps. I would love to be able to make some Punjabi rum aka desi daru. I've already purchased a still, waiting for delivery so let's see how it turns out. Have you got any secrets to share on the desi rum, I'd love to learn from you?

Just stick to what your grandad used to make and you’ll be fine :handgestures-thumbupleft:

By any means, I am not a expert, I consider myself a baby when it comes to craft of distilling. But spending countless hours here, going through fellow Aussie’s experiences, I have been able to grasp basic understanding of what is what.

My still (still waiting for parts) is essentially designed for traditional Doaba Roori Marka/Santra/Toffee/Heer Ranjha. Big thanks to Andrew, from whom, I have shamefully stolen design ideas. Once I get everything sorted, I would order 4” modular still and pick and choose parts, of course pending SWMBO’s approval.

PS: This is all my personal opinion, so take it with pinch of salt.

To put it simply, you want rum from sugarcane/molasses/jaggery, with fraction distillation. Flavour can be added during fermentation or later, ideal scenario being gin basket.

Traditionally, Doaba Roori Marka is a heavy rum, with copper sulphate in minuscule amounts. Whole idea of “Pehla Torh” being heaviest and flavourful, but since that also contains methanol, its also most harmful. It’s very important, under no circumstances, should it be consumed and should be thrown out (or used as fire-starter/cleaning agent).

If your still is all copper with a chilled worm tube, copper sulphate will be generated in higher quantity, but not at level of being harmful, think heavy taste like talisker and mortlach.

What you need is a pot still, 2” is more than enough, with FSD Carter head being ultimate setup for Roori Marka. Speculation is GMB (#1 for Orange/Lemon/Toffee varieties) uses custom Carter head still, but being trade secret, confirming is almost impossible.

You can do single run for Roori Marka, run still as slow as possible, and collect above 30%. Discard foreshots and collect Dunder/feints for next batch.

But I believe, a stripping run for low wines, followed by second run with 200-250ml cuts will be ideal scenario.

I am still working on my recipe, learning from here as I go. Once my still is up and running, I will do few runs and share results.

For country liquor, recipe can be as wild as possible (apple, oranges, lemon, toffee, chocolate malt, jaggery, molasses, herbs, etc) to as simple as jaggery+yeast+water only. It’s all personal preference and taste.

I would highly advice, to go through pages and see what others have built, and how others have done their runs.

TheStig, thanks mate that's the plan.

Rocky4700, you're a legend. Honestly that is the information I was looking for but didn't think I'll end up finding it on the internet.

When you mention Toffee and Heer Ranjha, what are you referring to?

I'm hoping to do a sacrificial run using turbo yeast and sugar in few days.

For the drinkable, I've found a local brew shop for most ingredients including molasses and then the Indian grocer for jaggery/gurd. I've got the ingredients for the spirit/gin run which will be plenty of elaichi and saunf for spirit second run.

I appreciate your comments about Pehla Torh as it's one of the stupidest thing people continue to rave about, drinking all that methanol. I'll be putting that aside to kick start my charcoal BBQ or something.

The still is all steel but plenty of copper scrubbers/mesh inside. It's a basic setup compared to most here, but a pretty good setup to get me started.

Can't wait to here about your upcoming experiments, I'm literally very excited.

Thanks heaps again, truely appreciate your guidance above.

You are welcome, what use is learning, if we can't share the knowledge gained.

Heer Ranjha is from Rajasthan, essentially simple jaggery/raw sugar wash, fraction distilled and filtered to 0.4 micron, and spice mix essence added. Toffee is similar, but with caramel/vanilla essence. Despite being lowest form of alcohol, both are alright.

Don't bother with Turbo stuff, just do a TPW run, its approx $20 for 50-60L mash. viewtopic.php?f=32&t=6167

My experience has been, to avoid local HBS, only go to HBS when woolies/coles don't have what we need. Same for Indian grocers. Plus woolies/coles have longer opening hours.

For Doaba Roori Marka (Desi daaru), follow viewtopic.php?f=32&t=30

Add following to the wash.
- Anise Star 2
- Cinnamon stick 1/2
- Cardamon 6-7 pieces whole
- Fennel Seeds 8-9 tsp
- Mace 1/2 tsp
- Cloves 7-8 pieces
- White Poppyseeds 1 tsp (Optional)

Oh yeah, SWMBO is already over my experiments

Even though, I am still awaiting parts, I will be starting my build thread soon.

Be interested to hear more about your jaggery experiment. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

TPW looks almost done in 6 days, it's was bubbling crazy for 3 days as it was quite warm. The container was 30-35 during th day and around 24 overnight. Looking forward to running this through for the sacrificial soon.

Rocky4700 wrote:For Doaba Roori Marka (Desi daaru), follow viewtopic.php?f=32&t=30

Add following to the wash.
- Anise Star 2
- Cinnamon stick 1/2
- Cardamon 6-7 pieces whole
- Fennel Seeds 8-9 tsp
- Mace 1/2 tsp
- Cloves 7-8 pieces
- White Poppyseeds 1 tsp (Optional)

Thanks so much, I've loaded up a 55L wash with most of those ingredients, smashed up most of these in a mortar and pestle. Aroma is sooo good at the start, the whole house is starting to smell a bit now. My hydrometer arrived and reading is 1.082.

I'll report back.

punjabiz wrote:TPW looks almost done in 6 days, it's was bubbling crazy for 3 days as it was quite warm. The container was 30-35 during th day and around 24 overnight. Looking forward to running this through for the sacrificial soon.

Make sure, you do a vinegar run first (50% vinegar, 50% tap water), before sacrificial run.

Take bubbling, as a sign of, start of fermentation, ignore it after. Rely on SG, if SG reaches around/under 1.000, fermentation is done. TPW is extremely forgiving, so use it as a learning experience, and getting familiar with your still :handgestures-thumbupleft:

punjabiz wrote:Thanks so much, I've loaded up a 55L wash with most of those ingredients, smashed up most of these in a mortar and pestle. Aroma is sooo good at the start, the whole house is starting to smell a bit now. My hydrometer arrived and reading is 1.082.

I'll report back.

Did you use Jaggery/Gurh, or Raw sugar and molasses?

SG is a little bit high, it should have stayed around 1.07 (but then again its rum with added herbs/spices, so higher SG is expected), if there is space in fermenter, maybe add a bit of water, to bring SG down. But do not stress over it, at best, you will get higher percentage of ethanol, at worse, yeast will crap itself and add esters. For Roori Marka, that's either higher ABV, or more fruity flavors :laughing-rolling:

Have you received the still yet? Did you buy a voltage controller? Maybe add pics, or even a link to what you bought? Experts here, will be able to help you with tips, to get the best out of it, IF they know what you got :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Rocky4700 wrote:Make sure, you do a vinegar run first (50% vinegar, 50% tap water), before sacrificial run.

Yep that's the plan, I'll likely do this as a small (<10L) vinegar/water run. Then the sacrificial run, which is exciting.

Rocky4700 wrote:Did you use Jaggery/Gurh, or Raw sugar and molasses?

The gurd/jaggery looked a bit rubbish so decided to use Bundaberg Molassses and Raw Sugar per the recipe you had linked from the tried & proven section.

Rocky4700 wrote:SG is a little bit high, it should have stayed around 1.07 (but then again its rum with added herbs/spices, so higher SG is expected), if there is space in fermenter, maybe add a bit of water, to bring SG down. But do not stress over it, at best, you will get higher percentage of ethanol, at worse, yeast will crap itself and add esters. For Roori Marka, that's either higher ABV, or more fruity flavors :laughing-rolling:

There's definitely room in there, its bubbling crazy right now. I originally think the SG was on the higher side but wanted to leave enough room as I'd read that molasses foams up a lot, but I did not experience this. Good tip to add some water, I will add a 2-3L to bring down the SG slightly. I do wonder whether I should be stirring it every day or just to mix and move the spices around. At the end of the day it's a good little experiment for my first.

Rocky4700 wrote:Have you received the still yet? Did you buy a voltage controller? Maybe add pics, or even a link to what you bought? Experts here, will be able to help you with tips, to get the best out of it, IF they know what you got :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yes I have indeed and am attaching some photos, I got it with a digiboil 35L. I couldn't find a power controller locally anywhere, so will be ordering from 5star, long way to ship but all good.
I'm planning to use it as is for the vinegar and add copper for the TPW (?).

The still did come with some copper and mesh seal to use the column as a gin basket. I will admit that I ended up buying some extras like seals, clamps, copper and 2* 90degree parts to replace the 180 degree turn at the top so I can have the condensor at an angle, not sure whether this makes a difference or not but anyway...

For the rum wash, I'm intending to remove the small column at the base and dephlegmator.

The still is made to be used with the parrot, so the condensor outlet is a 1/2 inch (?) clamp. At the bottom of the parrot, it came with a ball valve tap.

Not a biggie, Gurh is literally unrefined sugar anyhow (with slight un-ferment-able nutrients), so raw sugar is perfectly fine.

You have already started the fermentation, don't over think it, its first step, you will go a long way, and will experiment on the way. Best to let it sit undisturbed, give it 1-2 days after bubbling stops, then check SG.

Still actually looks decent, just make sure to change seals and don't use red copper. In pot still configuration, doesn't require huge amounts of copper, just couple scrubbers packed inside, to remove sulphites.

For pot still, length of neck, angle of lyne arm, shape, etc, don't matter at our scale. So all you need is boiler, a small section of tube to turn at 90D+ angle, followed by condenser. Just look at Alembic pot still, that's general idea.

Unless, if you are obsessed (Idiot) like me, then length of neck, length/angle of lyne arm, everything is crucial, and needs to be perfect :angry-banghead:

You will need to do few fast low wine runs, before you have enough for slow spirit run, don't even worry about parrot at this stage.

Thought I'd provide an update.

I've done the 50/50 Vinegar run and let it steam crazy for an hour, ran water for a minute here and there to cool it down to liquid at the condenser.

A day later.
I removed the lid of the TPW and oh my god it smelt like apple cider, but worse. The final gravity was 990, I unfortunately didn't have a hydrometer at the start so don't have a sg.

I tipped the TPW into the boiler, mistake as I took along some of the crap at the bottom and will siphon next time.

Thankfully my FSD power controller arrived just a day before the run. I had read some conflicting information about using a power controller on the Digiboil 35L, but it worked like a charm.

I ran the 25-26L of the TPW with the full still attached, with two copper scrubbers in the larger column piece.

I ran it on full 1900W + 500W to bring the load to boil, 100% on the PD. When the boiler temperature reached 70 degrees, I turned the 500W off and used just the 1900W element, slowly reducing the power down to 50%. Most of the run was done between 50-60% power.

Foreshots definitely smelt like acetone or nail polish remover as I'd heard, so discarded 200ml. After that for a bit there was a tomato/cider smell to the alcohol and I'd left the parrot on for my own learning (found it helpful). After every 2-300ml, I'd clear out the parrot as it has a tap at the bottom and start the collection fresh.

I was collecting at 85-86% alcohol with the dephlegmator using water recycled from the main condenser. I tested by stopping the water flow into the dephlegmator and running it only through the main condenser. The alcohol collection went down to 70-75%, but the cidery smell increased as expected. I ran the still until it went down to 40% alcohol.

I collected
[*] 200ml foreshots
[*] 1.25L coke bottle at 85%
[*] 1.25L coke bottle at 75%
[*] 200ml towards the end which I discarded

The collections I've kept are for cleaning windows and starting my bbq or woodfire.

I must admit, the guidance from this website is spot on about doing the full sarificial run, playing around with the water flow, using the dephlegmator or without it and taking cuts etc. I've learnt so much during this run and have much more confidence running the next one (desi rum), which is probably going to be interesting.

In the end there was 22L of liquid left in the boiler, which I discarded. The bottom copper scrubber was dark black brown and stunk like tomatoes. I cleaned the still in the dishwasher's short run of 30mins with 1 tablet of finish and worked like a charm, everything comes out shining except the copper scrubbers, which will be vinegared soon. I do have StellarSan for future cleans. I also learnt how to monitor temperature and use the power controller to manage it.

Thank you to everyone that contributes to this forum and particularly rocky for the above. I will post again when my rum is ready, it's currently sitting at 1.02 gravity.